


Young King

by TheLOAD



Series: Hunters AU [9]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Gen, sorta sad but sorta cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-22 03:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3712300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLOAD/pseuds/TheLOAD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little story involving Hunter Geoff and King Ryan's son.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Young King

**Author's Note:**

> If you read Hunter. Leader. Father. Friend. you'd know that in this AU Ryan will eventually have a son. This happens a little less than a week after that story.

“Uncle Geoff?” James’ voice was still small, still young, and Geoff thanked the gods every day for that. The boy was already starting to look like Ryan, despite his youth, and Geoff didn’t think he would have been able to bear if the five year old sounded like him as well. “I’m king now, right?” Geoff sat up in his bed, looking over at the young boy who had invaded his quarters. Not even a week had passed since Ryan’s death, and The Hunters were still in his kingdom, still helping to fight the war that had taken their friend.

 

“Yeah?” Geoff said. “You are.” It wasn’t completely true, there was more too the entire process than that, but James was too young to bother with the details. In title if not fully in power he was King, and that’s all the boy needed to know for now.

“Then how come so many people are telling me what to do?” James asked. The child rocked on the balls of his feet, looking down. “No one told Daddy what to do.”

“Your father was a man,” Geoff said. “And you’re still just a boy. You need more help than he did.” He placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder, smiling. “And plenty of people tried to tell your father what to do. He just rarely listened to them.”

“When will I be big enough to not need so much help?” Geoff frowned, trying to think of how to explain. A king would always need help, even if they didn’t listen to it, but James was too young to understand politics yet. But he knew what James meant, and he tried to think of how to articulate it.

“When you can lift up your father’s sword,” he said finally. “When you can wield it with as much strength and grace as he could. You’ll be old enough to rule on your own then.” James frowned at this. His father’s sword had seemed the heaviest thing in the world to the boy, and his father all the stronger for being able to use it.

“What if I can’t ever do that?” James asked. Geoff shifted, sitting on the edge of the bed and scooping James up, sitting him on his lap.

“You will,” Geoff said, rubbing his back the way he knew Ryan used to. “You’re your father’s son. You’re going to be so strong one day.” He stood up, holding James close as he carried the young royal back to his room. “But you won’t be if you don’t sleep, so back too sleep, you hear me?”

“Okay,” James said, hugging Geoff around the neck. Once they had reached the room Geoff laid James down in bed and tucked him in before turning to leave. “Uncle Geoff?” Geoff stopped, turning back to the boy.

“Yeah?” He asked, frowning when he saw the look on James’ face. The boy looked sad about something. James bit his lip, looking down.

“I miss Daddy,” he said. Geoff’s frown deepened and he walked back over to the boy and hugging him.

“I know, Buddy,” he said. “I miss him too.”

“Can we go look at the stars?” James asked. “Daddy used to take me to look at the stars.”

“It’s already too late, James,” Geoff said. He pulled back and smiled at him. “Tell you what, we can tomorrow. Before you go to bed, okay?” James smiled, hugging Geoff.

“Okay!” He said. “Night Uncle Geoff.” Geoff hugged him back and stood up, blowing out the torch as he left the room.

“Goodnight, James.”

__________

Geoff kept his promise to the young king, taking him up to the castle the next night to look at the stars together. He sat on the edge, with James in his lap, and listened as the boy pointed out all the constellations his father had shown him. The night was still and quiet, with only the occasional call of a wolf to break it up.

"Uncle Geoff?" James asked, turning from the stars and listening intently to the wolf. "Is that wolf a daddy too?" Geoff shrugged.

"It could be," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"Because he's singing the same song Daddy would sing to help me sleep," James said, reaching a hand up to chew on it. Geoff frowned, looking down at James.

"You can understand it?" He asked. "You know your father could, too."

"I know," James said. "We would listen to the animals together. He said it made me special, like him." He went quiet, once again listening to the animal as it started its call anew. Geoff rubbed gentle circles in the boy's back, thinking.

There had been rumors going around the kingdom of a large male wolf, nearly twice the size of its fellows with golden brown fur and clear blue eyes. No one was sure where it had come from, but it was an odd creature. Plenty of people had seen it kill, usually bandits and thieves, but not once did the creature eat its prey. Anyone who had tried to hunt it found it vanished like the wind. Geoff had seen it in the distance once, while out hunting game, and it was the strongest looking wolf he had ever seen, wild and yet at the same time oddly tame in his presence before it vanished back into the forest. Some thought the beast an ill omen, some sort of bloodthirsty devil, while others took it to be a protector spirit. Geoff smiled for a moment, wondering why it couldn't be both.

"You know what James?" Geoff said, listening to the wolf and wishing he could hear its words. "I think that wolf might be a dad after all."


End file.
